Bulldozers demolish illegal structure at Indore temple after 36 deaths

News Network
April 3, 2023

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Indore, Apr 3: Days after a tragic accident that killed 36 people here, more than five bulldozers rolled into the Beleshwar Mahadev temple in Madhya Pradesh's Indore today to demolish illegal construction. A large contingent of municipal and police officials reached the temple on Monday morning to ensure the action was carried out without any disturbance.

Personnel from four police stations have been deployed to prevent any possible resistance. The Deputy Municipal Commissioner, District Magistrate, and other officials are also present at the spot.

The tragedy, in which some families lost more than one member, could have been averted had the Indore Municipal Corporation acted on complaints filed by residents, an NDTV investigation showed. The temple area that collapsed was an illegal structure and the Indore Municipal Corporation had marked the cover of the stepwell for demolition last year, but they backed down after the temple trust warned them religious sentiments would be hurt.

The stepwell roof broke due to the weight of the crowds on Ram Navami. A havan was being performed when the incident happened.

Managed by a private trust, the temple is located at Sneh Nagar, one of the oldest residential colonies in Indore.

The 200-year-old stepwell was covered with four iron girders, a thin layer of concrete and tiles incapable of holding the weight of the crowd that gathered to offer puja on Ram Navami.

The walls had come up around the floor. A tin shed was set up as the roof of the temple. People gathered at Shri Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal temple for a havan (ritual) did not know that the ground beneath their feet hid a deep well amid rusty iron grills.

On Sunday, Shivraj Singh Chouhan addressed District Collectors virtually from his residence office and instructed them to identify traditional ancient wells and stepwells and prepare a list. He told them to stay particularly alert about wells and stepwells which have been covered without filling. If there is such a place, arrangements should be made by opening them so that there is no possibility of an accident. If necessary, boundary walls, fencing, or railing should be made around such places.

Information about wells and stepwells should also be obtained from the local elders. It should be ensured that an incident like Indore does not recur anywhere in the state. He also told them to be careful about open boreholes. Such boreholes located on government and private land should be identified. Action should be taken against the concerned officer-employee in case of an open borehole on government land, and on the concerned landowner if the borehole is found open on private land.

After his order, the Indore district administration also issued an order under section 144 of CrPC to identify and free all stepwells from encroachment. The order, released by collector Ilayaraja T, says that a survey of all stepwells and wells will be carried out across the district and those that have dilapidated covers will be marked dangerous.

IMC officials will also survey 629 water bodies in Indore The name of the place and owner of the stepwell will be recorded, along with the land survey number and photograph.

A police case has been filed against two officials of the temple trust. Two municipal officials have been suspended for not removing illegal construction. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced ₹ 5 lakh compensation to the families of the victims and ₹ 50,000 to those injured in the freak accident and also ordered a magisterial probe.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also announced compensation from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the families of the accident victims.

A tweet on the official handle of the Prime Minister's Office read; "An ex-gratia of ₹ 2 lakh (each) from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of each deceased in the unfortunate tragedy in Indore today. The injured would be given ₹ 50,000 (each): PM."

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News Network
November 13,2024

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Bengaluru: An estimated overall 10.14 per cent voter turnout was recorded during the first two hours, since the voting began for bypolls to three Assembly segments in Karnataka on Wednesday, election officials said.

The voting began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm.

More than seven lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in about 770 polling stations in Shiggaon, Sandur and Channapatna, where a total of 45 candidates are in the fray.

While Channapatna recorded 10.34 per cent voter turnout till 9 am, it was 10.08 per cent in Shiggaon, and 9.99 per cent in Sandur, election officials said.

Voters, including women and elderly were seen queuing up in front of polling booths in these segments.

By-polls for Sandur, Shiggaon, and Channapatna are necessitated, as the seats fell vacant following the election of their respective representatives -- E Tukaram of Congress, former CM Basavaraj Bommai of BJP, and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy of JD(S) -- to Lok Sabha in May elections.

As many as 31 candidates are in the fray from Channapatna, while Sandur and Shiggaon have six and eight contenders, respectively.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made in the three segments for the smooth conduct of the polls.

The by-polls will witness a straight fight between the ruling Congress and BJP in Sandur and Shiggaon segments, while in Channapatna, JD(S) which is part of the NDA alliance is in contest against the grand old party.

Among the three segments, Channapatna is considered to be a "high profile", where the contest is between C P Yogeeshwara, a five time MLA from the segment and former Minister, who joined the Congress quitting BJP ahead of nomination, and actor-turned -politician Nikhil Kumaraswamy, who is Kumaraswamy’s son and former PM H D Deve Gowda's grandson.

BJP's Bharath Bommai, son of Basavaraj Bommai, is fighting Congress Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan, who had faced defeat against the former Chief Minister in the 2023 Assembly polls, in Shiggaon.

Bharath Bommai and his father cast their vote at a polling booth in Shiggaon segment.

In Sandur, Bellary MP Tukaram's wife E Annapurna of Congress is contesting from the seat vacated by her husband, against, BJP ST Morcha president Bangaru Hanumanthu, who is considered close to party leader and former mining barron G Janardhan Reddy.

Annapurna, Tukaram and other family members cast their votes at a booth in the segment.

With Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Bharath Bommai contesting, the third generation of Gowda and Bommai families are in the fray in this by-poll. Both their fathers and grandfathers have served as Karnataka's Chief Ministers in the past.

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News Network
November 10,2024

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The media office in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli regime has been waging a genocidal war since last October, says as many as 188 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the onset of the brutal military onslaught.

The office provided the figure on Saturday, naming four journalists as the most recent victims of the onslaught.

It identified the foursome as Zahraa Mohammad Abu Sukheil, Ahmad Mohammad Abu Sukheil, Mustafa Khadr Bahar, and Abdel Rahman Khadr Bahar.

The office said it “strongly condemns the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation and holds it fully responsible for committing this heinous crime.”

“We call on the international community, international organizations, and those involved in journalistic work worldwide to take action against the occupation, pursue it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and pressure it to halt the genocide and the targeted killings of Palestinian journalists,” it said.

Earlier in the day, the office said the Israeli regime had bombed the tents sheltering journalists and displaced persons at the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for the ninth consecutive time.

The atrocity that claimed the lives of two people and injured 26 others came as part of “the genocidal crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army against hospitals, civilians, and displaced persons,” it said.

The media office held the regime and the United States, its biggest ally, as well as other countries aiding the genocide fully responsible for such systematic crimes.

At least 43,552 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 102,765 others wounded since the launch of the war that followed a retaliatory operation by Gaza’s resistance groups.

The fatalities include 44 people, who were killed across the coastal sliver, in the most recent phase of the military onslaught.

As many as 24 of the victims were killed in the northern part of the territory, where the regime has markedly intensified its deadly attacks for weeks.

They included an eight-year-old child and a five-year-old one, who lost their lives after Israeli warplanes targeted a group of minors filling up jerry cans with water alongside their mother at the Jabalia Refugee camp.

Gaza’s heath ministry, meanwhile, said a number of victims remained under the rubble and in the streets following Israeli airstrikes, saying ambulances and civil defense teams could not reach them due to the sheer extent of the destruction caused by the raids and obstruction caused by the regime.

Also on Saturday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, a United Nations-backed assessment, warned that famine was looming in northern Gaza amid escalated Israeli aggression and the regime’s near-total siege of the targeted areas.

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip."

On October 17, the body projected that the number of people in Gaza facing "catastrophic" food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000, or 16 percent of the population.

The IPC report classified that figure as Phase 5 -- a situation when "starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident."

The Israeli military, however, questioned the report's credibility.

"To date, all assessments by the IPC have proven incorrect and inconsistent with the situation on the ground," the army said in a statement, denouncing "partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests."

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News Network
November 15,2024

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Union minister Amit Shah on Friday, November 15, said PM Narendra Modi will amend the Waqf Act despite opposition from leaders like Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.

"Modi ji wants to change the Waqf Board law, but Uddhav ji, Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule are opposing it," Shah said, addressing a rally at Umarkhed in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district.

"Uddhav ji, listen carefully, you all can protest as much as you want, but Modi ji will amend the Waqf Act," he said. Shah said there are two camps in the November 20 Maharashtra assembly polls, one of 'Pandavas' represented by the BJP-led Mahayuti and the other of 'Kauravas' represented by Maha Vikas Aghadi.

"Uddhav Thackeray claims that his Shiv Sena is the real one. Can the real Shiv Sena go against renaming Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar? Can the real Shiv Sena go against renaming Ahmednagar to Ahilyanagar? The real Shiv Sena stands with the BJP," Shah said.

"Rahul Baba used to say that his government would credit money in the accounts of the people instantly. You were unable to fulfil your promises in Himachal, Karnataka, and Telangana," he said.

Shah said the Mahayuti alliance has promised that women will get Rs 2,100 per month under the Ladki Bahin Yojana. "Kashmir is an integral part of India and no power in the world can snatch it away from us," Shah said.

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